AP psych grind

Acetylcholine (ACh)

A neurotransmitter that plays a role in memory and movement; low levels are correlated to Alzheimer
s disease.

Accommodation

Changing our current understandings (schemas) or creating new schemas to incorporate new info.

Achievement tests

Tests designed to assess what a person has already learned.

Acoustic encoding

The processing of sound, especially the sound of words.

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Action potential

A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.

Active listening

Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Carl Rogers’ client-centered therapy.

Adaptation-level phenomenon

Our tendency to form judgments relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience.

Addiction

Compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences.

Adolescence

The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.

Adrenal glands

A pair of endocrine glands that secrete hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress.

Aggression

Any physical/verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problems.

Alpha waves

Small, short brain waves of a relaxed, awake state.

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Amnesia

Loss of memory.

Retrograde amnesia

Type of memory loss that occurs when you cannot remember old memories.

Anterograde amnesia

Type of memory loss that occurs when you cannot form new memories.

Source amnesia

Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experiences, heard about, read about, or imagined the heart of many false memories.

Amygdala

Two lima bean-sized part of the brain in the limbic system; linked to emotion (fear and aggression).

Anorexia nervosa

An eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15% or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve.

Antianxiety drugs

Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation.

Antidepressant drugs

Drugs used to treat depression; also increasingly prescribed for anxiety.

SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)

Types of antidepressants that block the reuptake of serotonin into the axon.

Antipsychotic drugs

Drugs used to treat schizophrenia.

Antisocial personality disorder

A personality disorder in which the person exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even towards friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.

Anxiety disorders

Psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.

Aphasia

Impairment of language.

Broca’s aphasia

Damage in Broca’s area in the frontal lobe that results in difficulty producing speech.

Wernicke’s aphasia

Damage in Wernicke’s area in the temporal lobe that results in difficulty understanding speech.

Applied research

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.

Aptitude tests

Tests designed to predict a person’s future performance, capacity to learn.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Association areas

Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking.

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together.

Classical conditioning

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events.

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punishment.

Attachment

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Attitude

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Attribution Theory

Theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition – dispositional vs. situational.

Audition

The sense or act of hearing.

Autism

A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others’ states of minds.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.

Aversive conditioning

A type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior.

Axon

The extension of a neuron that allows the message to travel through.

Babbling stage

Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

Barbiturates

Drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement.

Basal metabolic rate

The body’s resting rate of energy spending.

Basic research

Pure science that aims to increase scientific knowledge base (through experiments mostly).

Basic trust

According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Behavior therapy

Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

Behavioral psychology

The school of psychology that believes that behaviors are the result of associations, observation, and rewards and punishments.

Belief perseverance

Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Binge-eating disorder

Significant eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust or guilt, but without compensatory purging or fasting that marks bulimia nervosa.

Binocular cues

Vision and depth perception that depends on the use of two eyes.

Biofeedback

A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle psychological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension.

Biological psychology

The school of psychology that believes that behaviors are the result of hormones, neurotransmitters, genetics, and parts of the brain.

Biomedical therapy

Prescribed medications or medical procedures that act directly on the patient’s nervous system.

Biopsychosocial approach

An integrated method that includes biological, psychological, and social levels of analysis.

Bipolar disorder

A mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania.

Blind spot

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, and no information is received there so the brain fills it so we do not notice it.

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain (“What am I looking at?”).

Brainstem

The oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord ends. Responsible for automatic survival functions.

Broca’s area

Controls language expression – an area in the left frontal lobe (“boca” = mouth).

Bulimia nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, followed by vomiting, purging, fasting, or extreme exercise.

Bystander effect (OR Kitty Genovese Syndrome)

Tendency for less people to respond the more people are around.

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theory of emotion that a stimulus triggers (1) a physiological response (arousal) and (2) emotion at the same time.

Case study

An observation technique in which one or a specific group of people are studied in depth in the hopes of revealing universal principles.

Catharsis

An emotional release.

Central nervous system (CNS)

The brain and the spinal cord.

Central route persuasion

Attitude change in which interested people focus and are convinced by the actual argumentation, facts, and details.

Cerebellum

The “little brain” located in the back of our heads that is responsible for coordinating movement and balance.

Cerebral cortex

The fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the brain; the body’s ultimate control and information-processing center.

Change blindness

The tendency to fail to detect changes in any part of a scene to which we are not focusing our attention.

Chromosomes

The structure made up of DNA molecules that contain the genes.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.

Circadian rhythm

Our biological 24-hour clock of bodily patterns of temperature and wakefulness.

Client-centered therapy (OR person-centered therapy)

A humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, and empathic environment to facilitate the client’s growth.

Clinical psychology

A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.

Cochlea

The fluid-filled, shell-shaped tunnel in the inner ear that contains the receptors for hearing (frequencies).

Cognition

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

A popular integrated therapy that attempts to address a change in a person’s thinking through healthier behaviors.

Cognitive dissonance theory

Theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent; change our attitudes rather than our behaviors.

Cognitive map

A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment.

Cognitive Psychology

The school of psychology that argues that behaviors are a result of mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Cognitive Therapy

Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting.

Collective unconscious

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.

Collectivism

A society that prioritizes the goals of the group over the individual.

Color constancy

Perceiving familiar objects as having one consistent color.

Companionate love

The deep affectionate attachment we feel as a relationship settles.

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Concrete Operational stage

The 3rd stage of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (7-11 years old) during which children gain the mental operations to think logically about events and ideas.

Conditioned (OR secondary) reinforcer

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through it’s association with a primary reinforcer (something biological).

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

An originally irrelevant catalyst that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Conductive hearing loss

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that produces sound waves to the cochlea.

Cones

Retinal receptor cells near the center of the retina that allow us to see color in well- lit conditions (we have 3 types – red, green, and blue).

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Conflict

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Approach-approach conflict

Conflicts in which you must decide between desirable options.